Te Mata Peak, Relay for Life and Life at School!

I forgot to mention in my last post that I got to go on the Flying fox at Beach Day! Here is a video :)

Over the weekend Kate and I climbed Te Mata Peak which is about 8 Kilometers I would say because we went on all of the beautiful trails! It was so much fun but I was pretty tired when we got to the top. After having a quick little lunch at the top and taking pictures we ventured back down and thought it would be a good idea to walk to, what we thought was, a nearby winery. I have never been so excited to see a tasting room open sign! After an additional 40 minutes and 4 hours in total of walking, it was well deserved! (More pictures on Facebook)

We made it!

We tasted at  the Tasting Table, which had wine from 4 to 5 wineries. It was pretty good but the best wine was at Te Mata Estate Winery that we walked to next. It was some of the best wine I have ever had and I definitely plan to bring some home! I especially liked the Sauvignon Blanc and the Chardonnay, yum!

We made it!

After drinking very nice wine Kate and I went back to Cheryl's with a couple bottles of cheap wine and flopped on the couch and didn't walk again until the next day. My feet, hips, knees and my body in general hurt so bad after hiking around Havelock for 6 1/2 hours.

This week at school has been good. I started teaching a reading group and they are responding very well. They are such great readers and are working really hard to make connections from the story to their lives. I have been getting really helpful and good advise from Luke, my cooperating teacher. I have learned heaps of great strategies and ideas from Luke!

This week we also had a Maori lesson by Whaea (mother) Kerri the Te Reo (Maori language) teacher! She is so great with the students and you can tell she really loves what she does. She did a follow up activity with how the world came to be according to the Maori people. The students got to pick their favorite of the six God brothers and draw their version of the God. It was neat how my cooperating teacher (Luke) took the lesson a few steps further, having the student work for extra time to really develop their picture, with characteristics of each God, etc. It turned out looking similar to a baseball cards (Weetbix card here) in the end. It was really neat.

Maori lesson 

I also got to see the Kapahaka try outs at school. Kapahaka is Maori club, of students who are and are not Maori, who learn about the Maori culture and do songs and chants, etc. (I'm sure I will learn more about what exactly they do as the year goes on). Below are two videos of the students at try outs, performing two Maori songs. The think the boys are more concerned about being fierce then they are saying the words, they're so great!

Each day the students have the option to share "news" with the class. We have had students share about what they are doing over the weekend, students brings in articles from the newspaper, One student brought in a caterpillar cocoon that is now living in our class and will eventually turn into a monarch butterfly, and one student brought in a model volcano and showed the class how it worked. It is a neat opportunity for students to practice talking in front of their peers and neat to hear all of their exciting news!

Volcano! 

On Thursday at school some of the teachers (including Luke and I) had a release day to do planning. The men teachers thought instead of having biscuits (cookies) and cheese and crackers for morning tea they would put together Munch, man brunch, for the staff. So, out came the barbies and they cooked up some steak, bacon, hash browns, and we all got to make our very own manwich... :) It was a lot of fun and the staff really appreciated it! Hopefully this becomes a habit for them!

Steak and bacon

Luke and Paul manning the barbie

One of my students brought me my first ever passionfruit. It was so yummy, a little sour but sweet at the same time :)

My frist passionfruit 

On Saturday Cheryl and I went to a festival/fair type event called Cultures Day. It was really neat to see all of the different cultures that are here in Hawkes Bay. We watched different cultural groups sing, dance and perform. We also managed to stop by am awesome second hand shop where I found two great tops for just about 20 dollars total!

Later that day and into the night I participated in Relay For Life with other teachers from Frimley. It was a lot of fun but I am definitely tired today. It was really neat to see that people are fighting cancer all over the world! There was a mystery bag competition, in which each team received a bag of random materials and had to make an outfit or accessory for a person on their team. I was designated as the "model" for the outfit, picture will follow soon. The teachers made me a fabulous hat, purse, bracelet, skirt, and even spiced up my shoes! They were so creative but unfortunately we didn't win... 

The event was next to a river and we were very lucky to have a group of Maori people bring their Waka (Maori canoe) down for the event. I got to paddle a little ways down the river while chanting Maori chants and learning the different moves you do with the oar! It was a really neat experience but a lot harder than it looks. 

Holding up our oars when chanting

The Waka!

I am off to Camp Kaitawa with a group of year 5 girls, their teacher Helen and Malcolm, the Frimley principal, on Monday! I am really looking forward to seeing more of New Zealand and being at camp for a week. If you don't hear from me, it's because I'm at camp! I am really lucky to be working with a principal who really values student teachers to see as much of the country as they can while they are here. I am very thankful and can't wait for this great experience! Look back in a week to see how it went.